Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-10-22

| a number of whalers already there. We
went to work with will, and soon had
everything in ship-shape order. On the
18th of June, 1865, we We're cruising in the
kamschatka sea. On that day we had a
catch, and were very busy trying out oil.
My watch came between six and ten bells,
and about nine o'clock the man at the
masthead sung out, Sail ho,'
When asked whereaway, he said he
thought he saw a steamer in the offing,
and that she was heading in our direction.
The Captain came on deck, and together
we made her out. We concluded she was
one of the Russian man-of-war, whose duty
1t was to cruise in these seas to protect the
seal fisheries. My watch being over,
went below and turned in, for was tired
and did not give second thought to the
supposed Russian.
at seemed to me that | had not been
asleep ten minutes, though it had been
three hours, when | was awakened by 4
husky voice shouting: Turn out here
Turn out Business on deck =
I" | thought whale had been sighted,
but did not think of the steamer once. 1t
did not take me long to throw on my
clothes and get on deck. As assembled
the hatchwayI saw an officer dressed in gray
uniform standing on deck, and as soon as
he saw me he asked: Are you the mate OF
this ship?' / answered that | was.
=" Get your boat and crew and 60 to the
steamer
Il looked in the direction in which he
pointed and saw, lying about quarter of
4 mile away from the Katherine, one of
the prettiest vessels | had ever run across
"'What vessel is that | asked, for she
flew no flag.
1.-The Confederate ship Shenandoah he
answered, as he turned on his heel and
walked to another part of the Katherine
asked sailor who was standing near
how much clothing had better take. He
that the suit would do me. The signifi-
cant way in which he answered me opened
my eyes. Up to this time had thought
that there was no danger to the ship. Ny
idea was that we were only being sent on
board TIE Confederate ship to sign parole,
for the war had ended in April, and it was
now June. Surely, knowing this, they
would not dare to burn lis. But we soon
found to our cost that it was ended in name
only for the Shenandoah. We showed
Lieutenant Clifford the San Francisco pa
pers, with an account of Lees surrender.
He said he had no orders from his Gov
ernment. We were talking about the in
cident the other day. He is now with the
Old Dominion Steamship Company.
" manned my boat and the Captain and
the other mates manned theirs. Then we
pulled for the Confederate. But we were
not then allowed to board her. Captain
Wardell had hawser thrown us, and with
this we were ordered to lash our boats to-
gether. There were already two boats in
tow belonging to the Nimrod of New Bed
ford, which had been burned the day before.
1t was now about two o'clock in the morn
ing of July 9th. The sun was about as
low as it gets in that latitude-about an
hour high it appeared to be-and the
weather was extremely cold. Lieutenant
Clifford followed us quickly from the Kath
crime, and a few minutes later she was one
sheet of flames.
" For thirty-six hours we were towed in
the wake of the Shenandoah, and in the
course of that time she boarded and burnt
three more whalers, and their boats were
added to our little notilla. We suffered
extremely, not alone from the weather
We had not provided ourselves with
sufficient supply of water or provisions and
we suffered the pangs of hunger and thirst.
" In few hours after the burning of the
three whalers the privateer came upon a
fleet Of seven more whalers, six of which
she sacked and burned. The other, the
General Ward, was boarded and we were
put on board. Before we parted company
with the Shenandoah the officers of the
prizes were taken aboard and made to sign
a parole not to bear arms against the Con-
federate States, that had ceased to exist
three months before.
81 was in the ship about IN hour, and
while there had time to find out why we
had not been allowed to come on board
when We were captured. The crew was
the most ill-assorted and badly disciplined
company | had ever seen. They seemed to
represent every nation under the sun, very
few being Americans, except the officers,
who were for the most part Nirginiaus,
and as nice a lot of gentlemen as | ever
! met. 1t would have been an easy matter
| for twenty men Of nerve to have taken the
vessel, and the officers knew and appre-
ciatcd the fact. After signing the parole
we embarked in the General Ward, and
set sail for San Francisco where We duly
arrived after an uneveutful voyage. ".
y. Commercial IdrertiSef